- Palantir’s contract with the NHS is up for renewal soon, so UK politicians speak their minds
- Politicians worry about the owner, the CEO and general company policy
- UK official says Palantir’s FDP software helps reduce wait times
Palantir’s UK boss has defended the company’s contract to handle sensitive citizen data as politicians across the country call for greater scrutiny of the company’s controversial role with the NHS.
“We’re not interested in patient data in the UK,” Louis Mosley, executive vice president of Palantir UK, explained on the BBC’s Politics Live (via BBC).
It comes after Palantir won a £300m deal in 2023 to run the NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP), which is due for renewal. Reports indicate that all NHS England trusts have been asked to adopt these tools from this month.
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Palantir continues to defend its presence in the United Kingdom
The FDP was launched to link fragmented NHS systems between GPs, clinics and hospitals to improve waiting list management, bed and operating theater availability and even supply logistics.
“I think for those of us who use the NHS, the lived experience is one of disconnected and fragmented systems, explaining who you are to a different person in each department, on reception,” Mosley said in a bid to demonstrate exactly where the FDP would play a role.
However, British citizens and politicians have not been shy about expressing concerns about Palantir’s CIA funding, defense contracts and owner Peter Thiel’s own policies.
Mosley also pointed out that Microsoft does not have access to NHS data, even though its tools, such as Excel, are widely used within the NHS and other public bodies.
Politicians from all major UK parties have expressed, to varying degrees, that Palantir should not be allowed to continue operating with the NHS, particularly when its CEO accused the NHS of being an “illusion”.
More broadly, as Europe pushes hard for technological independence and sovereignty and Britain follows suit, such influence from a US tech company might not be welcome anyway.
A growing number of NHS staff in the UK are reportedly refusing to even use the FDP, with reports of informal boycotts by clinical and non-clinical staff.
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